Monthly Archives: February 2009

The Caravan started this blog to publish news about The American University in Cairo. Thanks to your continued support and readership, we’re growing again.

Find our new home at www.auccaravan.org — that’s where you will find the latest news, features, video reports and PDFs of our weekly print edition about life at one of the most important universities in the Middle East.

So thanks again, and keep sending your news tips and comments to auccaravan@gmail.com! And don’t forget to add us as a friend on your Facebook page, where you can join the discussion among students and alumni.

By Sarah Wali and Nicholas Gerda
AUC’s technology services has issued a warning to faculty and students against a phishing scam that appears to be coming from their office. The scammers are using the University Academic Computing Technologies’ support email to ask for user passwords.
“They are trying to get you to tell them an account number and a password for some particular use,” said John Stuckey, AUC Chief Technology Officer.
“This message is from aucegypt.edu messaging center to all email account owners. We are currently upgrading our database and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused accounts to create more space for new accounts,” reads the email.

“A lot of people use the same password for all their accounts. So if I use the same password for my bank account as I do for my email account, they might use it to break into my bank account,” Stuckey added.
While the email appears to be sent from support@aucegypt.edu, an address to the UACT department, replies sent from faculty to the email were traced to a different address: support@emailsupports.com. The same address sent phishing emails in October and November to other universities around the world including Pacific Lutheran University, University of Waterloo and Trinity College Dublin.
A phishing scam involves fraudsters asking for personal information such as account numbers and passwords. They then use this information to either steal money or identities. Their emails seem legitimate because they come from a reliable and trusted source.

“The people who do this try to find the most plausible things they could make, so that they appear to be legitimate,”
Stuckey warns student against giving out email passwords. He stresses that no institution will ask users for their passwords. Anyone who is looking for email passwords could be aiming to hack into the user’s bank account.

A Family Transport bus carrying students and staff heading to the downtown campus crashed into a sand truck Sunday afternoon near the Maadi exit off the Ring Road.

Director of Facilities and Operations Sherif Sadek said that the sand truck was backing-up on the road and the bus driver couldn’t control the vehicle in time but luckily nobody suffered from any injuries.

Another bus was sent to the scene right after the accident to take the passengers to their original destination in downtown Cairo where a nurse from the AUC clinic was waiting to ensure the physical and mental well-being of everyone on the bus.

The crash is the fourth since the move to the Kattameya campus a semester ago. Last November nine staff members were injured when a bus hit a truck at the Ring Road, a week after another bus collided with a Pajero near the entrance to Heliopolis

“The issue is they are professional drivers, they should know what to do in situations like this,” said Sadek.

Sadek added that he was “not satisfied” with the standard of driver’s employed by Family Transport, the company that won a $2 million contract to be AUCians mode of commuting from Cairo to Kattameya. According to Sadek, all drivers will undergo in two weeks training on defensive driving as well as customer service and communication skills.

“Two weeks after training begins we can expect the drivers to present us with services that will meet our standards,” said Sadek.

Another bus was said to have crashed yesterday as well but Sadek said that it merely grazed another car involved in a three-vehicle crash in the buses route.

“Please complain,” said Sadek explaining that complain forms have been placed in a booth right outside Gate Four where the buses enter and leave the campus. According to Sadek a representative from the transportation office is present there at times to receive complaints from students or faculty about anything from bad driving to bad attitude.